Ethereum Staking Reaches 16.16 million ETH Ahead of Shanghai Upgrade

According to Glassnode on-chain data, Ethereum staking has reached an all-time high of over 16.16 million ETH which has been deposited into the beacon chain. 

The 16.16 million ETH figure consists of over 13.28% of the total Ether supply and represents $26.13 billion at current prices.

As per the data, out of the 16 million ETH staked, about 11.408 million ETH  have been staked through staking services providers such as Lido, Coinbase, and Kraken, among others – representing 70.86% of the total staked on the Beacon chain. According to the data, Lido dominates ETH staking with 29.3%, Coinbase controls 12.8%, while Kraken holds 7.6%, and Binance controls 6.3% of total staked.

BeaconScan data shows that the number of active validators stands at about 503,702 while Nansen data shows that the number of unique staking depositors is about 93,800.

The rising number of staked ETH is an indication of the promising signals of Ethereum adoption and security. However, this may create pressure on the network’s core developers to speed up work to enable withdrawals to maintain balance on the network.

While the staked funds are locked up within the network and get accrued yield, it will be impossible to withdraw until the network’s Shanghai upgrade, which is expected to take place in March.

Many participants are expected to withdraw their staked ETH after the Shanghai upgrade. However, the withdrawals are anticipated to happen in stages and validators are to be rewarded for re-staking. The mechanism is expected to ensure a balance in the chain.

The increasing amounts of staked ETHs are important as it makes it more difficult for an individual actor to attack the Ethereum chain. But since the majority of staked ETH currently belongs to large wallets, the phenomenon has drawn concerns that the chain is becoming too centralized.

Developers are reported to be working on making the Ethereum network less centralized as some staking providers such as Lido appear dominating in ETH staking.

The amount of staked ETH has risen 16.68% since the Merge upgrade in September when Ethereum transitioned to today’s favorite staking system (proof-of-stake consensus mechanism) from its old proof-of-work energy-intensive crypto mining process.

At the time of writing, ETH’s trading price is at $1,634.98 USD, up 0.65%, with a decrease of its trading volume by 18% to $6,947,406,035 USD in the last 24 hours.

While this shows a slight reduction in interest among traders, ETH’s price analysis shows a bullish market, which has been favoring the buyers as the price currently sees significant improvements.

The buyers have been able to recover the price above $1,600. The recovery has been slow as there is still selling pressure within the market. The bulls and bearish are trying to capitalize on opportunities in the market.